Nintendo turning off Wii and DS online gaming

After the switch off date, the Wii and DS will still be able to access the internet and buy things on their respective shops.

Nintendo is retiring internet connectivity services for the DS and Wii later this year.

According to an announcement made by Nintendo of Japan, online play, matchmaking and leaderboards in several titles will be affected following the switch off date of May 20.

Affected Nintendo-published games include Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. A full list is available in a support page from Nintendo of Australia.

Both consoles will however still maintain a certain level of connectivity. The Wii Shop Channel and the Nintendo DSi Shop will remain open for business and both devices will still be able to browse the internet and use services like Netflix and Youtube.

The Wii U and 3DS will not be affected by this switch off, although any Wii and DS games played on those consoles will still not have access to online features.

The May 20 switch off date is for all territories where the service is currently supported.

Nintendo has been winding down support of the Wii for some time now. In October last year, the company confirmed that production of the console had been stopped in Japan and Europe.

A simpler version of the Wii, the Wii Mini, has also been released and cuts out GameCube compatibility. The Wii Mini will be unaffected by the termination of online services as it was unable to access them in the first place.